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English: From the source site, courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech: Generations of stars can be seen in this new infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In this wispy star-forming region, called W5, the oldest stars can be seen as blue dots in the centers of the two hollow cavities (other blue dots are background and foreground stars not associated with the region). Younger stars line the rims of the cavities, and some can be seen as pink dots at the tips of the elephant-trunk-like pillars. The white knotty areas are where the youngest stars are forming. Red shows heated dust that pervades the region's cavities, while green highlights dense clouds.

W5 spans an area of sky equivalent to four full moons and is about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. The Spitzer picture was taken over a period of 24 hours.
Like other massive star-forming regions, such as Orion and Carina, W5 contains large cavities that were carved out by radiation and winds from the region's most massive stars. According to the theory of triggered star-formation, the carving out of these cavities pushes gas together, causing it to ignite into successive generations of new stars.
This image contains some of the best evidence yet for the triggered star-formation theory. Scientists analyzing the photo have been able to show that the ages of the stars become progressively and systematically younger with distance from the center of the cavities.

This is a three-color composite showing infrared observations from two Spitzer instruments. Blue represents 3.6-micron light and green shows light of 8 microns, both captured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Red is 24-micron light detected by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer.


Français : Traduction française de la légende originale de la NASA/JPL-Caltech :

Image infrarouge du télescope spatial Spitzer représentant la région W5, une zone de formation d'étoiles couvrant la surface de quatre pleines lunes. Plusieurs générations d'histoire peuvent être vues sur cette image. Les étoiles les plus vieilles sont visibles sous la forme de points de lumière bleue au centre des deux cavités vides (Les autres points bleus sont des étoiles plus proches ou plus éloignées que W5). Des étoiles plus jeunes sont sur le bord de ces cavités, et d'autres sont visibles sous la forme de points roses au sommet des piliers. Les étoiles les plus jeunes sont en train de se former dans les zones grumeleuses blanches. Le rouge marque la poussière chaude qui occupe les cavités de cette région, et le vert marque les nuages denses.
Comme les autres régions ou se forment les étoiles, comme Orion et Carina, W5 contient de grandes cavités qui ont été creusés par les rayonnements et le vent stellaire des plus grosses étoiles de la région. Selon la théorie des formations d'étoiles en cascade, le creusement de ces cavités comprime les gaz qui les entoure, ce qui provoque l'effondrement nécessaire a l'allumage de nouvelles étoiles. Cette image apporte des arguments pour cette théorie: Plus on s'éloigne du centre des cavités, plus les étoiles sont jeunes.

Image composite en couleurs artificielles montrant des observations infrarouges realises avec deux instruments differents de Spitzer. Le bleu correspond à 3,6 micron, le vert correspond à 8 microns et le rouge à 20 microns.
Date 20s
date QS:P,+20-00-00T00:00:00Z/8
eptember 2006, 28 September 2006, 16 February 2007 (IRAC); 23 February 2006 (MIPS)
Source [1]
Author NASA/JPL-Caltech
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 Unless otherwise noted, images and video on Spitzer public web sites (public sites ending with a spitzer.caltech.edu address) may be used for any purpose without prior permission ([2]).
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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current14:00, 13 May 2017Thumbnail for version as of 14:00, 13 May 20176,160 × 3,616 (14.57 MB)SteinsplitterBotBot: Image rotated by 270°
15:37, 23 December 2008Thumbnail for version as of 15:37, 23 December 20083,619 × 6,160 (13.76 MB)Gorgo{{Information |Description={{en|1=From the source site, courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech: Generations of stars can be seen in this new infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In this wispy star-forming region, called W5, the oldest stars can be

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